Costa celebrates 100th cruise in China

Leading European cruise line Costa Cruises has celebrated its 100th sailing in China.

The cruise line first began offering trips to China in 2006, with passengers traveling onboard the Costa Allegra, Cruise Talk Central reports.

In a week of celebrations, Costa also helped to open the new Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal.

Costa Cruises reportedly operates around 40 per cent of its Chinese sailings from the port of Shanghai, with the cruise line planning to operate 34 cruises to China during 2009.

Gianni Onorato, president of Costa Cruises, commented: "Costa was the first to offer cruises in China and chose Shanghai as its home port. This is the city where we began to develop our activities in China and the results of those decisions have gone beyond our greatest expectations."

In other news, Costa Cruises announced last week that it had commissioned a "monumental sculpture" by renowned artist Fernando Botero.

The sculpture will be given pride of place on board the Costa Luminosa in May 2009.

"... I would just like to thank you for your caring, professional and friendly attention to my partner's anxiety regarding our Christmas cruise on Ventura. I won't bore you with the details...but you made one hell of a difference.. thank you x ”